Niche Marketing 101 for the small business
- Par David Carle
If there is one thing established and new businesses have in common, it is the importance of identifying your target market. It probably sounds obvious, although many new businesses suffer from a lack of market clarity, as they try to please every type of customers.
When the brakes on your car need to be changed, are you going to the average car mechanic or an automobile brake specialist?
Theses businesses might still break even at the end of the day, although the "shoot in the middle'' approach is the guarantee to a slow growth. Why not profile the type of prospect more likely to buy your products, and focus all of your energy on marketing to him? This kind of thinking is called niche marketing.
If your business focuses on filling a need clearly defined by a group of potential customers holding the same demographics, you are hitting a niche market. The more outlined your market is, the easier to craft an advertisement message that will reach your audience on a personal level.
Most of the times, mainstreams companies are using the approach "let's sell to everybody". They need the profits, so they engage in massive sales transactions. The smaller groups with specific needs are too small to bring them profitability. They will leave theses small markets (and the profits that goes with them!) to other smaller businesses.
The faster you'll be able to identify your niche market, the faster your new venture will start to make sales. This factor is often overlooked, since a key success factor of a new business is the time taken to close that first sale.
Also, rumours circulate fast inside interest-oriented online communities. Once the word get out about your company filling a special need, word of mouth will propel your product through all corners of the Internet.
So just how do you define your niche market?
Profile your user: What are his characteristics? What are his dominant emotions? Put yourself in his shoes and see if you can think like him.
You need to know where to find him. Does he frequent specific web sites? Which newsletters does he read? If you can't find any discussion board that share the same interest as your market, maybe you can create one.
Finally, you need to circulate your message and expose your brand. You can rent ads in a newsletter, or become a regular contributor on a discussion board. You can target your search engine marketing optimization campaign around a few niche keywords. In other words, show who you are, and what you can do for them.
The next time you will be thinking about launching your next business, aim for a big chunk of a small market, instead of the opposite. Your customers will reward you for it.